card consolidate credit loan student

Deadline on student loan savings nears

Attention college students, parents and new grads: It's time to stop trashing those student loan consolidation letters along with the credit card offers.

They're trying to save you thousands of dollars.

There is no catch here: Anyone holding a federally-backed student loan — Stafford loans for by students and PLUS loans for parents — will see their interest rates rise by 1.84 percent as of July 1.

The good news is that these loans can be consolidated and the current rate locked in if borrowers act by June 30.

"The bottom line is that students ... need to be contacting their lender immediately," said Shann Doerr, financial aid director at Quincy University. "It can make a huge difference."

Lenders are offering a dizzying array of consolidation packages, some with rates as low as 2.5 or 3 percent.

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Would you lend cash to a stranger?

You may think the idea sounds crazy, but a growing number of people are lending their own money over the internet — and they are receiving market-beating rates in the process. In fact, the idea has proved so popular that the British internet company that came up with the concept has decided to expand into the United States.

Founded by the creators of Egg, the online bank, Zopa.com puts people who want to lend money in touch with people who want to borrow. By cutting out the “middleman” — otherwise known as the banks’ profit margin — the website allows people with spare cash to obtain a higher rate of return than on a deposit account, while borrowers can receive a cheaper loan rate than normal.

The website has been described as the eBay of personal finance and has attracted more than 78,000 members, who have loaned or borrowed more than £2 million since its launch in March last year.

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